Game 21 AfterThoughts: Short and Not So Sweet
We’re going to stick to some bullet points tonight, because it is Thanksgiving, and because the Stars are about to face Colorado and Winnipeg in three days this weekend. So whatever your feelings about this game, rest assured that those games will be much more of a referendum. So if you think things are actually terrible, then good news: they are about to become ever more terrible, and everyone will agree with you! And if you think the Stars are actually better than this old, wet beach towel of a game made them look, then good news! They will have two chances to prove it.
Anywhere, here’s the damage. Yikes.
Casey DeSmith did not have a good night. In fact, I would go so far as to say he had a bad one. Those first two goals really do come down to not making NHL-quality plays by him, and while the third goal was a fantastic shot, it’s also one he would say he should have, given where Bedard is, and where DeSmith was positioned.
Connor Bedard and Taylor Hall both scored for the first time in at least a dozen games. In Bedard’s case, you can see he has the tools to score. In Hall’s case, his goals were scored when DeSmith had a puck clank off his glove, when DeSmith and Matt Dumba failed to properly communicate on a routine pass, and when Chicago beat three Stars’ defenders at the end of a penalty kill (Craig Smith coming out of the pile more quickly than Wyatt Johnston was not a fun thing to watch) to feed Hall, who found DeSmith already falling forward after trying to push out strong on the shot, only to realize he wasn’t close enough to the shooter to really maintain his position, giving Hall a lot of net to shoot at. Boom.
To be fair, the Stars really could have ended the first period 2-2. They created some chances, but like we’ve seen too often this year, they failed to capitalize. Yes, Roope Hintz was out of the lineup, but that cannot be an excuse against a lottery team. And you can rest assured that the team will not treat it as such.
Louis Crevier’s first NHL goal that made it 6-1 was not on DeSmith. That was just a goal where Ilya Mikheyev took the Stars’ third defense pairing to town on a Friday night, and nobody gave them a ride back home. It’s not exactly a big talking point or anything, but yeah. Not good enough, and not by half. You know this.
Matt Duchene scored a power play goal after Jason Robertson worked to created a decent shot that led to the rebound goal. It’s garbage time stuff, but you still like to see that from the Stars’ power play, such as it is. You look for positives in these games, folks
Colin Blackwell scored a goal after absolutely giving 110% on a shift. That’s no less than he deserves. Good to see him get rewarded after sitting for a couple of weeks. I’m sure it was extra nice to score in the same building where he got his first NHL goal.
Back to special teams once more, actually. The Hawks basically went 2-for-2 against Dallas right after the Hurricanes likewise went 100% against the Stars. At a certain point, we might need to start asking hard questions of the penalty kill. I am not saying this is that point, but it isn’t not that point, I think. Maybe.
Logan Stankoven ended up back on the top line, swapping places with Evgenii Dadonov. That’s telling, I think, when it comes to what the coaching staff looks at when offense becomes an absolute necessity, but it’s also hard to read too much into a game that was well out of hand by the second period.
DeBoer said after the Anaheim loss last week that every team is going to have some of these sorts of games every year. That is true. It is also true that having one of those sorts of games right after having that Carolina sort of game is a great way to really annoy your fans who kick off a holiday weekend by watching you.
Let’s end with a Thanksgiving note that doesn’t relate to this game. A long time ago, probably nigh on ten years now, I made a sweet potato casserole for our family’s Thanksgiving dinner. It involved caramelizing shallots, frying bacon, and peeling a ton of sweet potatoes. It was a nightmare, and man, shallots are murder on your eyes. But it is delicious, and I have always held to this truth: marshmallow sauce belongs nowhere near any serious dish on the dinner table. So, whatever it takes to make your sweet potatoes or yams (they are two different foods but both delicious) tasty this year, please don’t resort to weird, gelatinous sugar cream. Let nature’s tubers do their thing, if only for once a year. It’s the least you can do, really.
Okay, actually here is the last thing: